1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of processing vehicle damage claims and, more particularly, relates to a method of processing vehicle damage claims from an initial claim through final settlement that requires a minimum of input, time and involvement from the insured or third party claimant (either of which may be referred to herein as the “claimant”).
2. Description of the Prior Art
The vehicle damage repair process normally involves the performance of numerous tasks, many of which must be arranged and managed by, or require input from the claimant, which requires a considerable amount of time and effort on the claimant's part. The typical process employed by insurers (insurance providers) for processing vehicle damage claims requires that the claimant be personally involved in each step of the process. In the typical industry claim handling process, the claimant must (1) report the claim to the insurer; (2) make arrangements for the insurer to inspect the vehicle; (3) obtain at least one, and often several, estimates to repair the damage; (4) select a body and/or repair shop to complete the necessary repairs; (5) manage the repair outcome (including timeliness and quality of the repair); (6) obtain a rental car; and (7) pay each participant in the process. The claimant may receive an advance from or be reimbursed by the insurer for these charges. In some instances, the claimant is required to bring the damaged vehicle to the insurer's drive-in claim center for an inspection and an estimate before dropping the vehicle at the selected repair facility.
FIG. 1 is a flow chart that identifies the typical steps required in another current vehicle damage claim processing method. This claim handling process begins with the claimant reporting 10 the claim to the insurer and, more particularly, a central handling branch of the insurer. The handling branch thereafter attempts to dispatch 20 a field representative to the vehicle. The field representative inspects the vehicle and prepares 30 a field estimate. The field representative then issues 40 a field draft for the estimate amount to the claimant. The field representative may also coordinate 50 with the central handling branch to address rental vehicle billing for the claimant.
The insurer now must wait for the claimant to perform certain actions. First, the claimant must select 60 a repair facility and deliver 70 the vehicle to the repair facility. Experience has shown that the vehicle often arrives at the repair facility two or more weeks after the accident date. The claimant must also identify 80 a rental vehicle vendor and arrange for a rental vehicle for the period the vehicle is in the repair facility. The rental vendor must confirm 90 with the insurance company that the claimant has appropriate rental vehicle coverage. The foregoing steps performed by the claimant are time consuming and inconvenient.
Upon delivery of the vehicle to the repair facility, the repair facility inspects 100 the vehicle and reviews the initial estimate written by the field representative. The repair facility reviews 110 the initial estimate for accuracy. Typically, the repair facility informs 120 the claimant that the estimate is inadequate. This first or field estimate is often inaccurate because the field representative does not have the means to identify hidden damage. Furthermore, field representatives frequently do not possess the necessary experience, training or equipment to evaluate every aspect of potential damage.
The repair facility may then ask the claimant to coordinate with the insurance company to deal with the repair facility's concerns. Alternatively, the repair facility often states that it will deal directly with the insurer, but this leaves the claimant wondering whether the insurance company will in fact deal with the repair facility on the inadequate estimate and do so in a timely manner. In either case, the insurer must dispatch 130 a field representative to the repair facility to identify the deficiencies of the field estimate, confirm the need for additional repairs, if necessary, and issue 140 a supplemental draft for the difference. Only at this point will the repair facility actually begin repair work 150 on the vehicle. Further, it is not uncommon for the repair facility to ask for numerous supplemental drafts during the repair process as hidden damage is found. Experience has shown that on average about 1.25 to 1.5 supplements occur after the initial estimate is written. Moreover, subsequent to dropping off the damaged vehicle at the repair facility, the claimant must procure a rental vehicle.
In the meantime, the claimant will typically place numerous phone calls to the insurance company asking about the supplements, status of repairs, rental vehicle extensions, etc. When the vehicle is finally repaired, the claimant must arrange 160 to drop off the rental vehicle and pick up the repaired vehicle. On average, repairs take an additional two weeks. Further, the claimant must deal with the repair facility on any repair quality issues.
As shown in FIG. 1, the claimant must devote considerable time and effort in the processing of vehicle damage claims according to the currently known systems. At a minimum, the claimant often is without his/her vehicle, or is driving a damaged vehicle pending an opening at the repair facility, for an entire month according to the presently known systems. Clearly, there is a need to provide a better and more efficient system that (a) requires less involvement, time, energy and input from the claimant in the processing of vehicle damage claims, (b) provides better coordination between the insurer, repair facility and rental car company, (c) provides more accuracy in the estimating process, and (d) reduces the cycle time of the entire process.
Certain attempts have been made in the prior art to automate the current method of processing vehicle damage claims illustrated in FIG. 1. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,950,169 to Borghesi et al. discloses a system and method for managing insurance claims that includes a computer network that controls the electronic transmission of files between various computers. The computers may be located at part supply vendors, repair shops, salvage yards, insurance company offices, and other terminals that may be used in an insurance claim processing application. When a claim is filed, the claim is entered as a work file in the system. The different computers of the network may access the work file to enter certain information into the work file, which is then accessible by all the computers of the network. For example, a repair shop may enter into the work file cost estimates for parts and labor costs for repairing a particular vehicle. The work file will also contain vehicle information describing the vehicle, identification number, year, make, model, and other pertinent information about the vehicle. Certain calculations may be conducted on the work file including whether the present worth of the vehicle based on estimates such as blue book evaluations suggest that the vehicle should be declared a total loss.
Even though the automated system by the Borghesi et al. patent attempts to streamline the currently known system for processing vehicle damage claims, the claimant must still perform each of the time consuming tasks discussed previously and arrange and manage each step in the vehicle repair process. For example, the claimant must secure one or more estimates, select the repair shop, identify a rental vendor and arrange for a rental vehicle, deliver the vehicle to the repair shop, pick up the rental vehicle, coordinate with the repair shop throughout the repair process, pick up the repaired vehicle, return the rental vehicle, inspect the repairs for deficiencies, and negotiate with the repair shop to correct deficiencies. Accordingly, the system and method for managing insurance claim processing disclosed by the Borghesi et al. patent saves little time and effort on the behalf of the insured or third party claimant.
Other prior art in this area includes U.S. Pat. No. 5,504,674 to Chen et al. directed to an insurance claim estimate, text, and graphics network for processing insurance claims, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,432,904 to Wong directed to an auto repair estimate, text, and graphic system. However, the automated computer network systems disclosed by these references suffer from the same disadvantages discussed hereinabove in connection with the Borghesi et al. patent. The claimant must expend significant time and effort in managing the insurance claim process with multiple inputs required by the claimant before the vehicle is finally repaired and returned to his/her possession.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to restructure and simplify the currently known methods of processing vehicle damage claims. In addition, it is an object of the present invention to minimize the inputs required by the claimant during the processing of a vehicle damage claim and to make the entire process less burdensome for the claimant. Further, it is an object of the present invention to more efficiently handle the processing of vehicle damage claims.